1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, an image forming method, and an image processing system. The present invention, in particular, relates to an image forming device, an image forming method, and an image processing system capable of confidential printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a printing system where a personal computer (“PC”) and a printer are connected on a network such as a LAN, the PC can transmit printing jobs to the printer via the network to be printed by the printer.
However, there are cases that are not desirable from the standpoint of keeping confidentiality of a printed matter as the printed matter can be exposed to the eyes of third parties between the time when the user instructs the transmission of a printing job from the PC and the time when the user receives the printed matter at the printer.
As a means of solving this problem, a technology is proposed (Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-276744) in which the PC transmits a printing job after setting up a password specified by the user, and the printer executes the printing job only when the password is entered on the printer.
Also, a technology is proposed (Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-9237170) in which the printer generates a password for each printing job it receives, returns the password to the PC, and executes the printing job only when the password is entered on the printer.
However, the method described in the Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-276744 presents a problem that a password specified by a user can match with a password specified by another user, thus damaging the confidentiality of the printed matter.
Also, the method described in the Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-9237170 presents a problem that a user has to remember all the passwords generated by the printer if there is a plurality of printing jobs for the same user, thus causing a large burden on the user affecting the user's convenience.